Minsk, 25 September 1997 (RFE/RL) - The Belarus Foreign Ministry said today it has refused accreditation to a correspondent of the Russian ORT television.

The decision applies to ORT correspondent Vladimir Foshenko, who appeared as a witness in the case of another ORT journalist, Anatoly Adamchuk, detained earlier this year for allegedly violating the Belarus-Lithuanian border. Adamchuk, along with several other detained ORT employees, was later released under pressure from Moscow.

Belarus authorities today officially confirmed that Pavel Sheremet, head of the ORT Minsk office, will remain in jail at least for another month. Sheremet, a Belarus citizen, was detained two months ago on the same charges. The arrests of the ORT journalists and the continuing detention of Sheremet have strained Belarus' relations with Russia.